Installing Axl library and using it

Introduction: XML development

Axl library is an XML library written in ANSI C, which is known to work on Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, *-BSD, GNU/Linux under Amd64/Itanium and MacOS/X platforms.

The library package is composed by the following items:

Axl library components

• libaxl: base library implementing all XML functions, and common API used by extension libraries. It has no external dependencies.

• libaxl-ns: optional library, built on top of libaxl, which provides Namespaces support. It depends on libaxl.

• libaxl-babel: optional library, built on top of libaxl, which provides extended encoding support to defult utf-8.

• axl-knife: command line tool, built on top of libaxl and libaxl-ns. It depends on the base library and the namespace library.

Here are a set of instructions to get the library compiled for your platform:

GNU/Linux (or any posix OS) installation instructions

First, download the package from the download section. Check this section to know more about this.

Then use the standard procedure to get compiled an autotool ready package. Here are the steps:

  >> tar xzvf axl-0.2.1.b1984.g1985.tar.gz
  >> cd axl-0.2.1.b1984.g1985/
  >> ./configure
  >> make
  >> make install

Checking Axl Library compilation (regression test)

Once finished, to check your axl build to properly work, get inside the test/ directory and run axl regression test (test_01):

  >> cd test/
  >> ./test_01

All test must execute properly to ensure the library is fully functional.

Windows installation instructions

Axl library comes with packages already built for Microsoft Windows platforms. Check the download section to get them.

Using LibAxl library (installations with pkg-config infrastructure)

Axl Library is composed by a base library, which provides all XML 1.0 function. Additionally, a separated library is provided for Namespace functions.

Axl library comes with pkg-config support, which makes easy to use it inside your pkg-config enable projects.

To check current support for your Axl Library you can execute:

  >> pkg-config --libs --cflags axl

To give support for XML Namespaces (libaxl-ns), you must use:

  >> pkg-config --libs --cflags axl-ns

To give support for extended encoding support (libaxl-babel), you must use:

  >> pkg-config --libs --cflags axl-babel

To include support into your autotool checks (configure.ac/in files) you can place the following piece:

 PKG_CHECK_MODULES(LIBRARIES, axl) 

Again, add axl-ns or axl-babel to the previous instruction if you want your package to also check for Axl Library Namespace support.

Axl Library headers

For all platforms, Axl Library base headers has to be included as follows:

 #include <axl.h>

In the case Namespace is required, you must use:

 #include <axl_ns.h>

To include babel support, you must use:

 #include <axl_babel.h>